The Best Kind of eBay Seller Software

eBay seller software is only worth the cost if it provides high return on investment. Plenty of programs do—research, shipping, and inventory management tools can easily pay for themselves. But one type of software will pay off better than any other: a helpdesk.

How can an eBay helpdesk possibly make such a big difference? Let me show you:

Last updated 7/11/2018.

1. You Can’t Provide Professional Customer Service in My Messages

The standard eBay messaging system, My Messages, is as spartan as a jail cell. Beyond an Out of Office reply option, you have next to no tools at hand. That means you have to write out every answer individually.

Worse, it’s not designed for a team. You get one login and one password. If you want to hire a customer service agent, you have to give them access to the entirety of your eBay account.

There’s also zero accountability if you have several agents. You’ll never know for sure who sent that nasty reply that got you negative feedback.

A helpdesk can fix all these problems at once.

2. Great Customer Service Boosts Feedback

Everyone knows that you need a great eBay feedback score if you want to make sales. The better your feedback score, the more likely each viewer will become a bidder or buyer.

Customer service agents who are sick of repeating themselves will get sloppy and impatient. And the longer they spend answering one message, the longer it will be until they get to answer the next. The long waits and unprofessional responses can easily earn you negative reviews.

With the right helpdesk, you can avoid those problems and send your feedback score rocketing into orbit.

3. Better Service Means Better Search Rankings

Customer service affects eBay SEO as strongly as the moon influences the tides. For example, getting a higher feedback score converts more viewers into watchers, bidders, and buyers, which then causes eBay to rank your listings higher for high engagement. See our infographic on why improving customer service is the fastest way to make more money on eBay to see the massive difference it makes.

4. You’ll Reduce Your Final Value Fees

Final value fees are the largest part of the cost to sell on eBay. But if you become an eBay Top Rated Seller thanks to your great customer service, those fees can be reduced by 10%. That’s more money in your pocket with every sale!

5. You’ll Feel Better about Your Business

What’s better than making more money while making customers happier? Not much! Side effects may include a warm, fuzzy feeling and a shiny new eBay star rating.

How Will a Helpdesk Do All That?

1. By Making Support WAY Easier

Good helpdesks come with more useful tools than a hardware store. Here are just a few things they can do:

• Work as an eBay autoresponder.
• Manage your eBay customer service on the same screen where you answer messages from Amazon, social media, and your own website.
• Create canned responses and enter them with a click.
• Automatically fill in details that need to be customized for each message, like the buyer’s name.
• Automate just about any process that doesn’t require human interaction.

That’s barely scratching the surface. But these features alone will take an enormous amount of stress off your support team, and let them answer questions in a fraction of the time they used to need. That means your customers get better answers faster.

2. By Improving Security and Accountability

As mentioned above, giving your login to your staff greatly reduces your eBay security and makes it impossible to tell which agent sent which message. Using a helpdesk fixes both problems.

With a helpdesk, you don’t have to give your login out. Each agent gets their own unique username and password. They answer your eBay messages from within the helpdesk and never need to log in to eBay directly.

That means your login details are safe with you. And on top of that, you get to see exactly which agent wrote which answer. Management becomes easier and safer at the same time.

3. By Providing Management with Crucial Data

The improved accountability already makes a manager’s job much easier. A good helpdesk will also provide insights into your support team’s performance, giving performance stats for both the group and individual agents, plus customer satisfaction data.

You might only get this kind of reporting with a premium account, but it’s worth it if you have a big team! You can quickly assess who deserves a raise and who might be a better fit for another company.

Why Will the ROI Be Higher than with Other eBay Software?

Quality helpdesks are not free (with one exception), but they provide some of the best return on investment of any kind of eBay software. Let’s sum up the reasons:

• Easier support = better, faster responses.
  • Better, faster responses = fewer eBay chargebacks and refunds and higher feedback scores.
    • Fewer chargebacks and refunds = lower costs.
    • Higher feedback scores = better engagement.
      • Better engagement = more sales and higher search rankings.
        • Higher search rankings = even more sales.
  • Faster responses = lower support costs.
• More accountability = better agent performance.
  • Better agent performance = lower support costs, fewer chargebacks and refunds, and higher feedback scores.
    • Fewer chargebacks and refunds = lower costs.
    • Higher feedback scores = better engagement.
      • Better engagement = more sales and higher search rankings.
        • Higher search rankings = even more sales.
• Data analysis = better management decisions.
  • Better management decisions = improved efficiency.
    • Improved efficiency = lower costs.
• Better security = less of your investment at risk.

As you can see, a helpdesk will chase away your costs and send your eBay sales flying high.

Which Helpdesks Work Well as eBay Seller Software?

Two leading helpdesks have successfully integrated with eBay: Zendesk and Freshdesk. Both provide the features we’ve discussed in this article and can be complete game changers for any eBay seller. Compare their features in our article on using them to manage eBay messages and discover which one works best for your business!

All that you need to hook one of these helpdesks up to your eBay account is ChannelReply. You can get started for as little as $19 per month by using Zendesk Team with ChannelReply Lite (free!). And if you have a big business and want to dive right into the big leagues, you can get a free trial of ChannelReply to harness the full power of your helpdesk.

We firmly believe there’s no better eBay seller software out there. When you combine Zendesk or Freshdesk with ChannelReply, the ROI will speak for itself. Try it free today!